Halford & Brough in the Morning - NHL Free Agency Is Here!

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss the start of NHL Free Agency with Sportsnet's David Amber (27:15). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough Brady Dick, Brandon Ingram, and a bunch of picks. I said it's for you. Yeah, it's been great. Good first two days here. Fun to be back on the ice. Yeah, just excited to be here and see, like, the prospect. Good morning, Vancouver.

Six o'clock. on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Happy Canada Day, everybody. It is Halford and it is Brough. It is Portsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios in Beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you.

Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brup for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Don't spend summer sweating over your debt. Sands and Associates is ready to help you get debt free. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. We got a big show ahead.

going to throw to Jason really quickly for whatever business we need to get into. We have a loaded show. We are here for four hours today on Canada Day, which is also Free Agency Day. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. If you want to text in to the show today, you know the number. 650, 650. That's the Dunbar Lumber. Text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convene locations or visit. Bar Lumber Online today. Coverage of NHL free agency on SportsNet 650 is brought to you today by Beyond Basic

Eyewear. Go above and beyond this summer with Beyond Basic Eyewear. Visit them at 1052 Austin Avenue in Coquitlam or online at Beyond Basic Eyewear. Do you have glasses? Have you ever used glasses? I have never used glasses. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm slowly going deaf. which I need to address. However, I say, not so bad. Okay, well, good. That's good. Yeah, all right. So we've got six guests on the list today. It is the Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. So I will just run this down as quick as possible. Four hour show, six guests. Let's put it this way. First, two hours of this show, we're going hockey heavy and hockey insider heavy.

6.30, David Amber is going to join the program. 7 o'clock, Frank Sarah Valley. 7.30, Elliott Friedman. So we're going to get into everything that's going on around the National Hockey League. Free agency obviously opens up at 9 a.m. our time, but there's a lot going on right now. Potential trades, guys getting new contract extensions. So we'll get into all that in the first two hours of the program. At 8 o'clock, we'll dive into the Canucks stuff.

Randy Janda is going to join the program at 8. At 8.30, you might be asking, hey, you guys going to do any Canadian soccer talk today? Yes, we will. James Sharman, our soccer insider from Sportsnet and the Footy Prime podcast. is going to join us at 8.30. We're now just a handful of days away from Canada taking on Morocco in the round of 16 at the World Cup. 9 o'clock, Jason Greger is going to join the program from Edmonton. We will bounce around to some of the Canadian markets, including Edmonton,

to see what they might have in store on July 1. It's a big guest list. We got so much to get into. Without further ado, Laddie, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No, what happened? I missed all the action because I was.

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? So we're going to begin what happened today with something that's come down the wire just about an hour ago. Major news out of Chicago as it pertains to a local boy. But it's not Connor Bedard. Bowen Byram, the newly acquired defenseman of the Chicago Blackhawks, has reportedly agreed to a six-year extension with the Chicago Blackhawks,

with a wait for it, $12.5 million a V. that's a lot for him and I'm a Bowen Byram fan you've heard me talk about how you know in the Stanley Cup final when he was still with Colorado he was one of the best players on the ice then he goes to Buffalo and

I guess for a while it just seems like he was kind of lost there like everyone else who was in Buffalo and then does play a little bit better but reaches the point where he wants to go to a team and be a number one defenseman and probably

the money that goes along with that because certainly got that. He was not getting this contract behind Rosmas Dahlene in Buffalo and he was never going to get it behind Kail McCar in Colorado. But I have to admit, my first thought when I saw this

was, man, one of the toughest positions to be in in the NHL is when you are getting paid like a number one defenseman, but you're not quite a number one defenseman. And I think about, honestly, I thought about Seth Jones in Chicago, Darnell Nurse in Edmonton.

He's another one. And not so much the contract, but the expectations, Morgan Riley in Toronto, they're really difficult spots to be in because you can still be a good player. but if you're thrust into the role of number one defensemen and you're just not quite and the bar is so high the bar like you have to do everything well to be a true number one defenseman you have to be playing in all situations and you have to be reliable

out there you have to be a guy that's out on the ice where everyone goes few I feel good because so-and-so is on the ice right now I mean okay this is a tough one man let's take a pause here local kid love a local kid go get your money son i've always lived by that mantra go get the bag as the children will say but here's the thing bone byram and to be clear this contract doesn't kick in until 2027 2028 bone byram right now is the highest paid defenseman in the national hockey league he has the same cap hit as connor mac david essentially 12.5 to 12.6 boan byram and shout out to michael

Trecos from the hockey news who pointed this out on Twitter. He had 11 goals and 42 points last year. So he's a good offensive defenseman, but by no means the best. Did not receive a single Norris trophy vote. Yeah. And he is now the highest paid defenseman in the National Hockey League. But he's been behind really good defensemen where he's not going to get all the top minutes. But now he's being paid more than all those guys.

I know. I know. You don't have to try and rectify it. It's a crazy move. It's a crazy move. It's a lot of money. It is. But I do think there's more from Bowen Byron. The other wildcard and all this is he's got to stay healthy.

And he has for the last couple of seasons. So that's good. Yeah, I just wonder about the pressure that Kyle Davidson, the general manager in Chicago, was under to get this thing going, to keep Connor Bedard happy to show Connor Bedard that they were going to be competitive sooner rather than later

and sometimes what happens sometimes what happens is you put guys in positions that they're not quite ready to be in. Let's move on to the other big story around defensemen in the NHL because this is a wild one

and we can talk I guess a little bit more about it with Elliot Friedman. But Elliot Friedman had a report last night about what's going on with Zach Werensky in Columbus. Yeah, so the guy that's making now 3 million less than Bowen Byram, Zach Wrenski, the reigning Norse trophy

winner. According to multiple sources of Frege's last night, Dallas and Columbus had a verbal agreement to trade Zach Werenski in exchange for a package that included Thomas Harley. There was just one problem. Thomas Harley,

was made aware of the trade. So too was Zach Wrenski, but Werenski's decision was to invoke his no-movement clause and deny the trade to Dallas. Now, this opens up a huge can of worms and a lot of questions, and Ruff and I were kicking us around last night.

I'm like, there's two questions that need to be answered here. Did Dallas and Columbus agree to a trade before notifying Werenski or did they need to be answered? notify Werensky of the trade, verbally agreed to it, and then he reneged. It sounds like the former, that they had the principles and the pieces in

place, and then they went to Werenski. Which blows my mind, wildly irresponsible. Did they just maybe, again, I have no idea, but did they just assume, well, it's Dallas. It's not like we're trading him to Winnipeg or you know, Vancouver. It's just

Dallas. Of course I'll want to go there. We've gotten very mixed messages. as to what the player wants, because originally the trade list involved just a handful of teams and then it was expanded. There could have been a situation where maybe Dallas was on a list,

but then ultimately Werenzky decided he didn't want to go there. Whatever the case, that deal appears cooked. Now, it sounds as though the leading candidates for Zach Werenski's services are the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who also appear to be in the running for this thing. The Lightning, nobody's surprised.

The Leafs, I thought the Americans left Canada as opposed to going to Canada. Last time I checked on a map, Toronto's still very much in Canada. How much would the Leafs be given Werencki? They got a ton of cap space. John Chaka said right when he took the job, he was like, I got to fix this blue line. And if he were able to land Werencki, I mean, what a feather in his cap, that would be. That would be incredible. I also think

they would give him Like what do we see? He's got two years left on his deal So they don't even have to think about it until next summer to start. But he would be in the day. They got to think about it. Okay. Right up to top of my head, 15 million a year.

I think it would, I think it could be even more like it like Caprizov money. Shupresov 17? Maybe you're the Norris trophy winner. Who do you actually think is more valuable? I think I would take Werenzky over Caprizo. They're both incredible players. I was starting a team and I had to,

I had to choose between the two. I'd take Werencki over Kupreezov for sure. I have a bias towards the defenseman just because they play a lot. But I mean, Caprizov does the hardest thing in the NHL and that's score goals. So, I mean, they're both really good players. But if the Leafs could land Werenski, I might have to change my opinion on whether or not they've got a brave future. Now, I think the real story here, though, isn't necessarily where Werenski is going to go.

position that the Columbus blue jackets find themselves in right now. Well, until he goes to Toronto and then that's the story forever. Right. Then it becomes the only story. The other part of this really is, is Columbus going to get anything close to fair, reasonable value for Werenski now that they've been put in this box? Because if he's calling his shots, like the first thing I thought about the trade to Toronto is, well, what's Toronto give up? And the second question is, are they going to have to give up as much as some of these other suitors are? Because they know that Oranski's only got a handful of teams that he's willing to waive his no movement clause for.

By the way, the no movement clauses in the National Hockey League right now have totally flipped the league on their head. Like people just, people were just not prepared for it to work out this way where a guy could have a no movement clause, demand a trade, and then also demand where he wanted to be traded to because he can veto any deal he's not cool with. It is a very interesting dynamic and it is thrown the league into arrears overnight. It's the P, man. It's the P, player empowerment error. Love the P.

Big P-time. Isn't it more of that, I guess some people might have not thought that the players would just so blatantly use the no-move clause? 100% what it is, man. I don't know if there was a code behind it or something. There was an unspoken agreement that players would never enter the P-E-A-Dog. Right?

The player empowerment error was. It's never going to actually happen. I mean, we saw it a bit here back in that. Did Kessler? You Kessler must have had trade protection when he was traded. This is a long time ago now. But, you know, the Kineks got a decent return from Anaheim, but it probably could have been better.

But now it almost seems like the players have, again, gotten together and be like, let's wield these things like weapons. Yeah. And, you know, they were originally, they were originally handed out because a player would be like, yeah, I just don't, I don't want to be traded. I really like it here. I know trade clause was a little bit different in that quite often you'd be like, okay, well, listen, you know, I don't want to go to Winnipeg or Buffalo. My wife really doesn't want to go to Winnipeg or Buffalo. So just give me a clause that lets me block, you know,

six teams that I can't be traded to, right? And that was, that was purely to protect the player. right and now as opposed to protecting the player the player gets to wield that and they have they have apparently no problem with that and and I think sometimes you just like one player needs to break the seal yeah on this sort of thing and I don't know if it was huge like who would it have been like I guess like, like Kachuk didn't have a trade protection, I don't think. We probably should have seen it coming with Kachuk when. The user. Well, I mean, the playbook is now very straightforward.

And Werenski's followed this, by the way. It's a year or two out from your extension. You tell the team you have no intention signing. And that is your de facto trade request. You don't tell them you want to trade, but you definitely tell them you're not going to resign there. And RFAs can do this. They can say, well, you know, yeah, you might still.

control me as an RFA, but now then we're going to go to arbitration. It'll be a one-year deal and I'll be an unrestricted free agent. So do you want to deal with it then or do you want to deal with it now? And most teams would be like, yeah, we'll just deal with it now. I'll tell you what the difficult part about the Rorensky situation is. They tried to trade him to a contender. Dallas is still a very good team.

I know they bowed out in the first round of the playoffs last year. But they, even with the Kessler trade, I do recall that was about him going to team where he had a chance to win a Stanley Cup. It wasn't geographically based. I don't think, I mean, I think it was Anaheim, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, if I remember at the top of my head, where the choices that Kessler narrowed it down to. All

teams that were on the precipice of winning a cup or at least contending for one. They consummated a trade with Dallas. It very much sounds like Rorenzky has a very set place or places he wants to go to, which isn't necessarily about just winning. And in

that case, I think you have a legitimate beef to say, hey, pal, you signed a long-term extension here. You haven't played out the entirety of it. And now you're cherry picking exactly where you want to go. And you're putting us in a box because we're not going to get as good a return from Tampa Bear, Toronto as we are going to get from Dallas. I think there's a legitimate beef there. Sure.

But our players now going to say, like, I don't care. That's exactly the answer. Seems like a you problem, not a me problem. I think a player empowerment. Remember? And I think that, and you know what? I will say, I'm all right. with it. These guys' career are short, and you should be able to dictate where you want to go.

Sure. I think maybe the league should look at having even shorter contracts, so guys aren't opting out in year five of eight or, you know, four of six or whatever. You give them a four-year max length, and then they're free to move wherever they want after four years if it hasn't worked out. Couple things. First of all, when I saw the report that Rorensky had nixed a trade, I was like, I bet it's Seattle again. That's what, oh, yeah, yeah, fortunately for the crack and sake. It wasn't. I think the Cracken should make sure that all denials to go there are no longer leaked to the media because they've taken a beating the last week.

Like, their reputation is done. A bunch of people texting in this question. What are the Leafs going to offer Columbus? Great question. We talked about this. Limited assets. Yeah, I don't know. Matthew Nyes and...

Like, if you're Columbia... Okay, let's work through this. If you're Columbus, you're probably going to be like, let's do Nylander for Rorensky straight up, just hypothetically speaking. And the Leafs are going to say, no, why would we do that? You are in no position to negotiate. You don't have the cards. You don't have the cards.

They don't. You're going to take back, at this point, you're running the risk of taking back pennies on the dollar for the reigning Norris trophy winner. Think about how stupid that sounds. What do you think, Darren Radish's thing? You're like, am I still going to get power play one time? You're like, no, Darren. He should be like, am I still getting $8 million a year?

Whatever. Am I allowed to do that anymore? Oh, I bet. I actually wonder if Morgan Riley would be part of that deal just because Columbus would be like, all right, I guess we need a new defenseman here. But, but, I mean, the understanding or the reporting suggested that Riley wasn't going to be traded because

the Leafs wouldn't add a sweetener in. That's like to that, so that's the level that Riley's game has fallen to and also he's got four years left on his contract and he's 32 years old. Okay, and I was thinking about this last night and I want to be tactful in saying this because Johnny Goddrow is involved and his passing was incredibly tragic and is by no means a quote unquote curse. But this organization right now has suffered so many blows with guys not wanting to be there with, you know, unthinkable tragedy.

Just, I mean, we forget the goalie Matisse-Clovenics. I just completely butcher's name and I apologize. But there are countless things that have happened to Columbus over the last decade. All sorts of different things. And all of them have one thing in common. It's been incredibly damaging to the organization. There's not many organizations that can just keep doing this. I'm not saying they're going to fold up shop or they're going to move or they're going to sell.

But at what point are they going to be able to, you know, get on a streak of good things happening to them. because it just seems like bad things happen in this organization. This is just the latest example of it right now. We've got to text in, hey guys, I think if one of these players requests a trade when they're in a five-year deal, they should have to give up their no trade clause if they're going to break the contract.

Otherwise, they handcuffed the teams. What do you guys think? No, I don't think, I don't think that should be the case. Because you have to remember, these teams could still be like,

we're not trading. That is a good point. And would it get toxic? Yeah. But I think Steve Eisenman might be willing to let it happen with Dylan Larkin in Detroit. I don't know what I don't know what's going on there. But the players do take a certain amount of risk in these trade requests. Because if the GM or the team goes like, we're not trading you, then it gets,

real uncomfortable for that player. What do you think the response to Dylan Larkin and Detroit is going to be? If he comes back, booze. Right? He should be booed. Yeah. That's sports fandom. You want to leave?

Great. And it could be. Here's a firm package of booze for you. It can be real awkward in the room. Yep. So you got to go to, you got to go to work every day. And everyone there knows you don't want to be part of the fight. You don't want to go into battle with these guys.

and by the sounds of it it sounded like things were not okay in Ottawa around Brady Kachuk because was it Bruce Gariak reported that like he told his team as like I'm not extending here so for like four years or whatever that was hanging over the franchise and I think you saw in the aftermath of the deal it wasn't exactly like players were leaping to their social media channels to bid him farewell all right take care Brady we loved having you tell us you weren't going to be here for the last four years

see you later all those premonitions have come true. By the way, the other thing, as the texter wrote, like, you should wave the no trade clause. I think this has comeuppance for these teams that have handed NTCs and M. MCs out like candy. I really do.

Like, there was no way that they were going to be able to hand them out in the manner in which they did, frivolously, to the number of guys they did without it coming to bite them back to bite them ass. See, AJ Greer got a no trade club. Right? Like that's, see, okay, they're not learning their last year. A. J. Greer.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. But I also don't think it's as clear cut as some of the agents make it in that like a no move clause costs you $1 million. So that's how you save $1 million off. I don't think it's as clear cut as that I think players now, certainly ones like Zach Werenski feel entitled to them. And it's, it's, bear with me because it's a bit of a weird example. All right. I think that in the United States at least, minus California, it's cooked into reality, essentially, that the public will finance stadiums for teams, right?

So you can say, like, well, cities should just stop doing that, or states should just stop doing that. Politicians should just stop doing that. You know what happens then? The team moves. Right. right so in this case it's like oh you won't give me a no move clause i'm not signing i'm not signing a long-term deal then i want to control this situation it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison but what i'm just saying is that it's reached a point where if there was a superstar

that wanted to sign a long-term contract i think it's easier said than done to just be like, we're not giving you a no move clause. We're not giving you any trade protection. I think that would be a real problem in negotiations. No, I get it. And I know that a lot of these teams were just following the trends of the league. But it's comical to me that when you look at the National Basketball Association, there is a grand total of two no trade clauses in the league.

And they belong to Damien Lillard and LeBron James, who's on the move, by the way now. So this is kind of the definition of the genies out of the bottle, though, right? I think the only way to stuff it back in there is rules. Yeah. And now I think there are... Or collusion. Right. Rules or collusion.

Good old-fashioned collusion always works. I think there's something that they are going to try and attempt to rectify, but I don't know how you do it because the CBA is kind of already buttoned up for the, right? They've already kind of agreed to the MOU and yeah. Like it's kind of there. Wish said yesterday, here's how to accomplish that without opening up the CBA. stop giving them out. And my response to that is

that's easier said than done when you're trying to sign a guy. For sure. And especially now, more, I mean, here's a thing. Otherwise, you don't get A.J. Greer, right? Yeah, you can't get him to that lucrative deal. If you're a player right now and you're seeing what's going on, you are absolutely requesting one in negotiations. Berenski, although he may be vilified in Columbus,

is absolutely calling his shots. I want to go. here's where I want to go. And more importantly, there's where I don't want to go. And one of those was Dallas. I want to see a player, a superstar player, sign one of those

long-term contracts, massive contract, massive money with a no-move clause and be like, I'm really excited to sign this contract. Also, signs it. I would like to be traded to Florida. Didn't even spend a day here.

Not even going to make it through the day. And I want out. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Our guest list gets underway on the other side. David Amber, SportsNet NHL host is going to join the program on the other side. We can preview what is going to kick off at 9 o'clock today. That is the official start of free agency.

And a reminder, we are here until 10 a.m. That's right, four hours of Halford and brought this morning. So David Amber, on the other side, you're listening to the Halford and Breft show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650, from exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber.

He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will tuck some hockey maybe. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey maybe. I'm on the hotline, baby.

I might have been the streams talking. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick. No one wants to play Rick Talkin. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is. It's David.

It is. It's David. Amber. It is. It's David. He's on the hotline. 632 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Happy Canada Day, everybody. It is Alfred at his Brough at his SportsNet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. Don't spend summer sweating over your debt. Sands and Associates is ready to help you. you get debt free. Visiting today at sands dash trustee.com. Our next guest as we go to the ABLE Auctions hotline is a presentation of angry otter liquor. David Amber, SportsNet, NHL host, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, David. How are you? Happy Canada Day, fellas. Happy Canada Day to you as well. Happy Free Agency Day. Although, it seems as though, as we've coined it here, the player empowerment era might overshadow everything with all of this Zach Werenski news that happened overnight. And I guess to a lesser degree, Dylan Larkin and maybe into a lesser degree, Connor Halebuck, your thoughts.

Let's start with Werenck on what was reported overnight and what might happen today out of Columbus. Yeah, compelling. I mean, this is the thing. Everyone's like, oh, man, Anthony Manta's the biggest USA out there. That's being overshadowed big time. When you look at the Jason Robertson drama in Dallas, you know, they can't find a home for him, apparently, or he doesn't want to go anywhere. Connor Hellebuck, we all know what's going on there.

Dylan Larkin, that's been going on now for at least a month. And then the Zach Werencky thing, it's very rare that the raining Norris trophy winner is available to you in his prime, right? So the idea that poor Dallas, what's going on with the

stars, by the way? You know, Elliot Friedman reported that a deal was in place and then Zach Wrenski sort of said, no, I have a no movement clause and I'm not going to Dallas, which was a bit of a shocker but now all signs point towards them wanting to stay in the Eastern Conference, and potentially Toronto or Tampa could be the two front runners as far as the destinations to Land Zakorensky.

So this is compelling theater. A lot could shake down in the next four or five hours, and we're on the air, I guess, as soon as I'm done this call, I'm running to work because we're on the air in less than two hours now for, I think, a four-hour extravaganza to break it all down. But yeah, it's big news, guys. I mean, there are some big names. not conventional. I like how you dubbed it

sort of the player era as far as the control and power goes, but there's a lot of big names being dangled out there and it makes for what should be a really interesting day for us. Well, David, first of all, thanks for taking the time to join us this morning. I know this could be a busy day for you and also a great job on the draft.

It was interesting from a Connack's perspective and I think they got a pretty high character kid in Caleb Malhotra. Back to Werencky, though. what would the Leafs give up to get them? Well, I think any package would center around Matthew Nyes.

The reported return to begin with from Dallas was Thomas Harley. We all know how good he is from Four Nations, from the Olympics. And you're getting a corner piece back in return. And Matthew Nyes would be the corner piece and then are the centerpiece. And then, you know, who know, the Lillips don't have a ton of draft capital. They don't have a ton of prospect capital. Maybe East and town. is part of that.

Potentially some future first-round draft picks are part of that. But Matthew Nyes to me would be the centerpiece, and then it would be a plus-plus situation. And again, though, you might not get as much as you hope for simply because if the player is saying, I'm not going to sign with you long term. It only becomes harder for you, right? We all saw the Brady-Kichuk deal,

and people were up in arms. Why didn't they get this? Why didn't they get that? And if he's sort of saying, I'm not going to resign with you, It's only going to get worse. And here's basically where I need to go. You're hamstrung.

So, you know, if you're Don Weddell and Columbus, you're sitting there going, well, we'll take the best offer. We have to move this guy. And I'm sure they'd rather move him to the Western Conference and see him bite them in the butt, you know, come, you know, march when they're trying to march into the playoffs. And they're going up against them, potentially in an important game. But I think anything from the least would start with Matthew Nise and Ad, and Ad, Ad, How about spare a moment just to think and feel about Columbus right now and the fans of this hockey team. Every time they get a good player,

they must be thinking, oh, when's he going to leave? Yeah. I mean, you're 100% right, right? They don't have the most storied history. They've missed the playoffs the last six years. You know, they've been in the league since 2000. They didn't win a playoff series until 2019. team.

You know, so as bad as it's been for Canadian markets, and, you know, I come on every week and we talk about the Canucks and the Leaves and all this. I mean, there's some American markets. Forget about Vegas and those teams that have had instant success. There's some U.S. markets who are a quarter of century in and have shown, you know, very little to their fan base. And Columbus is one of them, and it's got to be frustrating because they've been knocking with some good teams, and then they take two steps forward, Rick Nash and Panarin, and then

they take five steps backwards. and here we are. So, yeah, I mean, it's tough. It is starting to look a little like the NBA. Don't you think, fellas, where guys are sort of... Well, they're calling their shots, and they're deciding very specifically where they want to go, right? And there are some forgotten cities, forgotten markets.

Like, you're just like, how are they ever going to do it? Like, I don't want to bash Columbus. I've been to Columbus. It's actually a nice city. but it's not South Florida. It's not Vegas. And, you know, Jason right now would love it. I would love it right now.

So it was like, quiet. That's amazing. That's great. But for the guys in their 20s that want to go live somewhere a little more glamorous, Columbus ain't going to get it done, I don't think. Well, it is a college town. It is Ohio State. And what's interesting, forget about Zach Horensky for a second.

They've got to sign Adam Fantilli and what's that going to look like. That could be the cornerstone for them, right? If they get a nice return for Werencki, and you sign Fantilli to an eight-year extension, which, you know, he's an RFA, so they've got to work on that ASAP, then you can sell some hope and sort of say we've got a foundation we're building on here. But you're right, it's not for everyone. They're kind of a forgotten market. They haven't had success.

And I think until you get a bit of success, you become a bit of a forgotten entity. Now, granted, three, four, five years ago, if we're having this exact conversation, we'd be using, instead of Columbus, we'd be talking about Carolina. And then Rod Brindamore steps in. They get a culture going. They get some good young players. They get success. They win a Stanley Cup. And now guys want to go to Carolina.

So it's all very fluid, right? Yeah. And we've said that about the Canadian market. Like, Cole Cawfield's an American player. He's not pulling a Matthew Cichuk. He's not pulling a Brady Cichuk or a Quinn Hughes. He's like, I want to stay in Montreal. I've signed long term.

And you know what? It's because he's walking around and he's feeling success. He's in a Canadian market. Things are going well. He's loving his life. So winning does cure a lot. And, you know, whether it's Vancouver, Toronto, Columbus or wherever, you start winning and guys will start gravitating towards your market.

Speaking of David Amber, a Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. So, David, when you guys are on the panel today and you're doing a four-hour show, if there's any lulls in the programming, I've got a content I use. idea for you. Ask all of your panelists and the insiders what they've heard about what happened with Team USA over the course of two weeks in Italy during the 11th. I'm not talking because here's here's my theory is that a bunch of guys went over there unhappy with their current situation with club. Then they won. Then they went to Miami with Matthew Kachuk and Matthew Kuchuk

was like, this is what it could be like for you all the time. Yeah. And what we're, Renski and Larkin were talking and Rorensky went to Larkin. I was like, okay, you go first. You do it first. And I'll see how it goes for you. Then I'll do it. And then Connor Hullabuck was like, can I get in on this action? And I think what happened was, guys got a taste of winning. Guys understood that they had the empowerment era at their fingertips. And I think this two, we thought that the return to international best on best was going to fundamentally change the league because of how great the action was going to be. But it's fundamentally changed the league because of what happened with that USA.

It's a worst thing that's ever happened to Canada, potentially. Yeah, I mean, listen, you're not wrong. You're not wrong, and who knows those conversations, but that was a very impactful, you know, two-week global series for the U.S. players. And you're right, when you look at the players who right now are either requesting trades or not signing with the teams they don't want to stay with, Hellebuck, Larkin, Werenck, Radie Kachuk, all of them on the team. Jason Robertson, yeah, he was cut, but he probably is feeling that same empowerment.

So you're absolutely right, guys. You're not wrong at all, and I think that we will never know what was happening behind closed doors, but I think we get a sense of what was happening. And also a taste of winning. I mean, Connor Hella Buck, I think was very happy in Winnipeg. You got a taste of winning. He was the star for the U.S. team. And he sort of said, man, like, I'm not sure this is going to happen in Winnipeg.

And I want to feel this feeling with a Stanley Cup over my head. I mean, he's won three Vezmas. He's won an Olympic goal. There's nothing left for Connor Hellebuck to do. He's a Hall of Fame goaltender. He wants to win a Stanley Cup. And if he's thinking, I can't do it. It has less to do with it being Canada necessarily and Winnipeg necessarily and has to do with he wants to win.

He's not talking about going to glamorous markets. He's thought about potentially going to a place like Carolina, which I wouldn't call glamorous. They're a very good market, but they're not a glamorous market. Or Buffalo. Or Buffalo, exactly. So these guys got a taste of winning, and it's like, you know, it's, you know, you want to, you know, have that appetite, you know, quenched all the time. And, you know, I think for some of those guys, they're just seeing their situations and saying this looks like a losing situation. You know, in basketball, we just saw Kauai leave the clippers come back to Toronto, which is kind of a crazy situation.

I'm sure you guys are going to talk about that at some point. And, you know, and that's sort of how the league operates. right greener past years so we're in a different era right now and it's an empowerment and it's going to be also big contracts like one thing that's going to happen today guys is players is players going to get two three four times a salary and i'm not talking star players you know we saw a j grier go from what a million dollars to four point two five or whatever it was like there's going to be more of that simply because the salary caps now up to what 104 million uh it's gone up eight million this year. So the number's going to get bigger. We're just going to have to adjust our brains around

why is this guy he's a fifth defense and why is he making $5 million? That doesn't really matter. It's just if you want your team to be solid, you want them spending money and getting guys for whatever the market value is. And that's what today is going to be all about. Well, that being said, I understand it, but that's still a big reported deal for Bowen Byram in Chicago. It's being reported as a six-year contract extension with a 12-and-a-half million dollar A-A-V. And Halford and I were talking about this earlier in the show. And we said, one of the toughest things to be is a number one defenseman who's not quite

a legit number one defenseman. And I hope Bowen Byron for his sake, the local guy played junior hockey in the area. I hope he's up for the job. I'm not sure he is. and there's going to be a lot of pressure on him to be not only a good defenseman but one of the elite defensemen in the NHL now on a Chicago team that is looking soon

to emerge out of this rebuild. Yeah, I mean, he's forever going to be linked to Daxon Rudolph, who went forth overall to Buffalo because that could have been the player that Chicago took. Instead, they traded to get Bo Byron. They gave him this massive contract. And I think what they're saying is he was somewhat sheltered, might be the wrong word,

but he was somewhat underutilized behind Kail Makar and then behind Rasmus Dahlane. Yeah, he was overshadowed. Yeah, overshadowed. And we think he has all the tools to be that guy. Is he going to be the next Kail Makar? Of course, he's not going to be the next Kail Makar. But if he'd give you a legitimate number one defenseman for Chicago,

then that contract will make a lot of sense and that trade will make a lot of sense. If he is anything less than that for Chicago, you're 100% right, guys. amount of pressure and the fans in Chicago are, it's not going to sit well with them, the sophisticated ones, knowing what they gave up to get him. And there's an immense amount of pressure there. If you talk to Bowen Byrham, he's incredibly confident. He is incredibly, I mean, he has a Stanley Cup to his, to his pedigree, he's played some big moments, he's done big things, and he feels very good about himself. So all of those things considered, you know, maybe he's in a position that he relishes now, like not just the contract and the money,

but the opportunity to showcase what he has. So it's a big time for him and a team that's desperate to sort of turn the corner and have some positivity there. And we talked about Adam Fantilli. Connor Bedard's another RFA guys. That's another contract to keep an eye on. That's, you know, what is what is Connor Bedard going to want? Because to me, whatever he wants, he's going to get.

And the question is, does he want to break the bank here or does he want to slow play this a little bit? and sign for shorter term and maybe try and create a winning situation by not having to break the bank in Chicago. So there's a lot of big, big storylines. A lot of them will unfold today and some of them will go into, you know, later weeks until July. Didn't you know, David, that Bedard and Celebrini are going to eventually use this player empowerment era to force their way back to Vancouver as the Canucks saviors? I thought you would have known that already.

What a story that would be. Listen, those are the things that, you know, get us excited, right? The prospect of that. It would be awesome if guys go, I just want to go play for my hometown team. I think it would be awesome. I think that would be so cool. I wonder if goalies are going to be perhaps the most interesting position for your show to discuss today because there's talk of Bobroski going to Toronto, maybe Edmonton,

but regardless of what, you know, if Bobroski goes to Toronto, Toronto. Edmonton needs to figure out its goalie situation, and I don't know if it can do it in free agency or a trade, but it doesn't matter. They have to figure it out. Yeah, I mean, it's really, it's a senior citizen home. The guys who are up for free agency, you know, James Reimer, Cam Talbot, Sergey Bobrowski, Freddie Anderson, Calvin Pickard, those are the guys in the spotlight.

There is one 20-something goalie who's the UFA. Guess who that is? Stu Skinner. Right. 27 years old, two times Stanley Cup finalists, sounds pretty good to me. The Leafs should bring back Freddie Anderson and the Oilers can bring back Stuart Skinner. Yeah, you know, it's going to be interesting. And there's a lot of rumblings that Pabrovsky is going to end up in Toronto.

And apparently they've come to a pretty big impasse in Florida where he wanted a Marchand-type deal. You know, give me the six years. I know I'm 37. I know I'm not going to be probably playing until I'm 43, but I've earned that, blah, blah, blah. And they sort of, I think I've sort of said, well, we've run that course with Marchan. and a few of the other deals we've made, and we're not going to do it with you. And he's coming off a sub-part year, as our whole team is,

and maybe, you know, Sergei Boroski's ready to go elsewhere. So that would be, imagine getting the band back together. Stolars and Bobrovsky were a duo that won one cup in Florida together, and now if Stolars and Vobrosky would end up a duo in Toronto, that would be quite compelling. Because I think the jury is out on Stolars in Toronto, is that he's a great goalie at times, but he's not going to be a guy you can.

can lean on for 55 games and then lean on for four rounds of the playoffs. You just hasn't shown the, you know, the ability to stay healthy for that stretch of period of time. So, you know, maybe you get a guy like Stolars who can play 30 games and Bobrovsky plays the other 50 and you've got that tandem. So, yeah, it's another big storyline. And it's certainly percolating here in Toronto. David, I know you get a busy day ahead.

So with that, we'll let you go. Thank you very much once again for taking the time to do this today. Happy Canada Day again as well. enjoy the start of free agency and everything that comes today. It should be a lot of fun. Guys, as always, thanks for having me on. Enjoy the day. We'll talk soon. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.

That's David Amber. Hockey, in Canada, SportsNet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Reminder, David is a presentation of Angry Otter Licker. Pick up a 15 pack of Budweiser this month at Angry Outer Licker and get a free retro NHL hat for your collection while quantities last. You can find out more at Angry Outerlicker.c.c.cr. Okay, we're just about an hour through the show. For our show today, we're going to take you through 10 o'clock.

So the first hour of free agency, we will be live on the air. Now, there's lots happening already. Officially, free agency kicks off at 9 a.m. our time. But the Bowen Byram deal, while not official, has been reported by multiple outlets. Sounds like that's happening. In case you missed it overnight, Zach Werenski was traded to Dallas. The two sides did agree on a deal only for Werenski to say, no, I'm vetoing the trade. I do not want to go to Dallas.

Thomas Harley was believed to be the piece going back to Columbus in that deal. There's lots of other smaller deals going on in the National Hockey League as well. So I know it's tradition for hockey media to hype up July 1st and use phrases like free agent frenzy. But I don't think anyone's even pretending that this year's UFA class is super exciting or super interesting. Depending who you asked, the most coveted free agent of them all could be Rasmus Anderson, and the defenseman in Vegas, but he's probably just going to sign with Vegas anyway. If you believe Fridge is reporting

that there's been a handshake agreement in place since he was traded from Calgary. And Fridge explained this yesterday, by the way, on Fann 590, why wasn't it just signed? Yeah. It's because they couldn't commit to having all that salary

on the books in the off season. They would have been way over the cap. They had to wait until July 1. They had to wait until July 1st. So that's probably what's going to happen with Rasmus Anderson. So if it's not him as the big name, maybe it's a guy like John Carlson, veteran defenseman, 36 years old though, still a good player. Very quickly, you go down the list and you reach names like Boone Jenner and Mason Marchman,

useful players, of course, but they're not going to change a team's fortunes with one stroke of the pen. You know, we talked about this with David, but perhaps the most interesting name on the list is future Hall of Fame goalie, Sergey Braborski, who's spot in Florida, has been replaced by Jacob Markstrom. The goalie market, as we discussed with David, is actually pretty interesting, especially with Connor Hullabuck, possibly available, and the Oilers needing to fix their issues. As for the Canucks, expect them to be in the market for some more veteran mentors,

maybe some toughness in the veterans. in the veteran mentor category. Ian Cole's name has been reported by Rick Dollywall, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Canucks are going to get a guy like Ian Cole. Sure. San Jose needs defensemen too. San Jose, I mean, if you're Ian Cole, you're like, oh, San Jose or Vancouver. Who knows?

You know, maybe there's also a bargain bin that the Canucks can shop in. Sometimes you get those guys in their mid-20s who are looking for an opportunity. Nothing's been reported about them in the market. You're like, oh, Canucks? sign this guy. See what he can do. But don't forget that the Canucks are still trying to dismantle last season's roster. So they may be hesitant to add too much today, less they get stuck with too many players and they lose any possible

leverage that they had. You know, and the leverage being like, well, I guess we'll just keep that player. We can ask Frank Seravalli and Frege coming up for the latest on Elias Pedersen, Brock Bessor, Jake DeBrusk, and maybe Marcus Peck. too. Freed's reported recently that Marcus Pedersen's name is out there. Okay. We do have another looming signing to announce. We don't need the breaking news center for this. But according to Kevin Weeks, Nico Heeshire is on the verge of signing a five-year contract extension with the New Jersey Devils. Now, Weeks reports that it's going to be just shy of $12 million Aav. I wonder if he will get more than $11.6 million a year.

the number I'm looking at for no reason in particular, but Nico Heeshire just shy of 12 million. Kevin Weeks got all that information and in his tweet with just eyeballs? Wow. This was a, this had more emojis. It had the goal light and the contract emoji. Oh. But that's how you know it's serious.

Every single emoji he adds to the tweet makes it more and more serious. That's right. We got a four emoji tweet guys. But he had reported, I guess about three weeks ago that he had heard that he sure and the Devils were closing in on a deal. So it's a five-year extension. Notice the last two extensions that we've talked about here. Neither of them went the full length of Byrams was a six-year deal. Heeshire's a five-year deal. So there's something to note anyway. But Nico Heeshire closing in on what appears to be around a $12 million deal to stick in New Jersey. So that

sets them up down the middle for at least the next five years. Okay, we're going to go to break. When we come back, we still got lots to get into on the program, as Jason mentioned. 7 o'clock, it's Frank Sarah Valley, 730. It's Elliot Friedman. It's Insider Hour here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.